World War 2 with a focus on The Cold War

• Review of the Nazi-Soviet agreement
  • The Soviets are suspicious of the West. Evidenced by the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
  • Stalin and the USSR are also cognizant of the role the west played in the Russian Civil War.
  • Nazi-Soviet has given the Soviets the opportunity to recoup territories lost to Poland in 1919-1920. In addition, the pact awarded Stalin a "sphere of influence in Eastern Europe."
• The Invasion of Poland and the start of the war
  • The German conquest of Poland is swift. It takes four weeks to defeat an army of 800,000. Poland is divvied up between the Soviets and Germans, who reclaim all Polish territory lost by Versailles and establishment of a protectorate.
  • Warsaw and other major Polish cities will have Jewish ghettoes.
  • After Polish capitulation, Hitler offers the Fritish peace terms based on the status quo. The West refused, and London will be the capital for the Polish Government in exile.
  • The British declare war and the French follow suit. However, they are not followed by the rest of Europe; every other country declares their neutrality, including Italy.
  • The Fritish do not declare war on the Soviets because they are hoping to reconcile with Stalin and because they want a two front war for Germany.
• Soviet Expansionism
  • The Soviets will utilize the Winter of 1939-1940 to consolidate their position in Eastern Europe, especially while Hitler has his eyes turned westward.
  • Stalin wants to reclaim all territories lost by Russian in Paris 1919. Essentially this entails the Cordon Sanitaire.
  • In early 1940, Stalin will demand and reacquire the Romanian province of Bessarabia (Moldova). Thereafter, Romania falls into an alliance with Germany. Stalin moves into the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and establishes communist regimes (not peaceably). Becomes the SovietSocialistRepublics.
  • In late 1939, Finland resists reincorporation into the USSR.
  • This devolves into Winter War of 1939. The Russo-Finnish War 1929-1940. 70% of the Red Army had been purged in during the Tukachevsky Purge of 1937.
  • Leadership is impugned and Winter War will reveal this. The Finnish slaughter the Soviets (600,000 are killed), who are punished by the elite Finnish troops.
  • The Finns bravely resist, but by Spring the Russian mass beings to surge forward. The Russians will sue for peace, gains some territory, but Finland retains its independence and allies with Germany.
  • Hitler is unhappy with Stalin, who has taken advantage of Hitler's preoccupation with the West. Nevertheless, critical trade exchange between Stalin and Hitler continues. Stalin outhitlers Hitler.
• Western Front
  • All is quiet on the Western Front.
  • The French are secure behind Maginot Line, as the British are secure in their respective country. The Germans are still sending out peace feelers.
  • No land or air action. There is some action at sea, but it is limited. From September 39-May 40, they just sit and stare at each other. They call this Sitzkrieg.
  • Hitler will use the Winter of 1939-1940 to consolidate his position in the West and prepare for the printemps of France.
• The US postition
  • The US is isolationist, constricted by the Neutrality Acts, which will be circumvented by an increasingly interventionist FDR.
  • The policy to aid Europe is called Cash and Carry. This ensures that there is no debt and no liability of the US ships being sunk by unterseeboots (submarines).
• Invasion of Denmark and Norway
  • Hitler's precursor to the invasion of France was to secure his northern borders, especially from air attack and amphibious landings. The Germans invade and subdue the Danes in one day.
  • The Germans and simultaneously with the British, land troops in Norway to "protect" them from becoming an enemy base. This is a clear violation of Norwegian neutrality.
  • Norway has a pseudo-Nazi party led by Vidkun Quisling (quisling now means traitor). The Nazis prevail against the British forces and Quisling becomes leader of the collaborational government, and he is hung by the Norwegians at the end of the war.
• France
  • In May 1940 Hitler is prepared to invade France, but the Maginot line is impregnable. The German plan is Schlieffen Plan, second addition.
  • They attack through the Low Countries (Benelux) and then through France.
  • The Germans want to secure the Channel coast and North east France as potential naval and aircraft bases, but they didn't think they could conquer France until 1942. Allied plan is to enter Belgium after the German attack and stop Germans short of France.
  • Two German tank generals called Heinz Guderian and Ernst Rommel get to Hitler and concentrate the German Armor in Ardennes Forest. The German Armor is an Armored corps with motorized infantry.
  • After the initial German attack and allied response, the concentrated German Armory sliced accross the Allied read and traps 1.2 million French, British, and Belgian troops inside low countries.
  • Holland surrenders in 5 days and Belgium in two weeks. Germans reach Calais and captures all the channel ports: their only route of escape for allies except for Dunkeik/Dunkercque.
  • Hitler stops his armor 5 miles from Dunkirk because he fears that the German Army plays too large a route in the conquest of France. He turns the surrender of Dunkirk over to the Loftwaffe. 5 days of bombing allows the British to organize a scratch fleet that will go to Dunkirk and rescue 350,000 troops evacuated to Great Britain is the only force left to defend.
  • By early June, the Nazis attack the halved French army. They quickly break through, capture Paris, and Bordeaux by June 20th. On June 22nd, France surrenders.
  • Hitler is in a nasty mood, so he orders the French to surrender in the same train box car in the Compeigne Forest where the Germans had signed the Armistice November 11, 1918.
• London Blitz
  • From August through October 1940 the Battle on Britain becomes a war on civilian morale.
  • CBS Radio for the first time in history brings the sounds of war into US living rooms. Edward R. Murrow was instrumental in changing American attitudes from isolationism to interventionism.
  • By October 1940 the "Battle of Britain" ends and the Nazis cancel their invasion plans. The bombing of Britain continues until 1945.
  • The effect was opposite of what was intended: British resolve to win the war galvanizes. Churchill becomes the heroic ideal of British perseverance and personifies the British Bulldog.
  • By the Fall of 1940, Hitler believing that Britain was crippled and isolated sees the opportunity to achieve his penultimate war aim, which is the conquest of USSR to destroy Communism and turn Russia into German lebensraum. The conquest of the USSR is called Operation Barbarossa.
  • Hitler enlarges the Germany Army and focuses production.
  • Europe will enjoy a whole year of relative peace nowhere on the continent is any opposition.
• Mussolini
  • Mussolini uses the defeat of France and British preoccupation with air warfare to expand Italy's position in the late 1900.
    • Somalia and Ethiopia attack Kenya
    • Libya
    • Albania and invade Greece all these are successful in 1940
  • By 1941 the British focus on Italy and drive the Italians back into Libya and Somalia. The British backed the Greek force on Italian retreat.
  • Italian reverses in Greece force Hitler to delay his attack on the Soviets from May until June.
  • the Germans send hoaxy forces to defeat the Greeks (Pandas on the Parthenon), and the Germans also take Crete by paratoopers.
  • Hitler often bolsters Italy in North Afrika, detaching a panzan army from the intended Russian invasion.
• Invasion of Russia
  • June 20th, 1941, Nazi invasion of the USSR (Largest war evah). There are 4,000,000 troops who attack on a Broad front from the Baltic to Black Sea.
  • There are three army groups who aim for Leningrad/ St. Petersberg, St. Pete/ Moscow, and Kiev /South. Stalin was caught completely by surprise despite repeated British warnings. (Stalin thinks that GB is trying to evoke a Nazi-Soviet Pact which they are)
  • Stalin disappears for two weeks and the Soviet armies are routed; he reappears and orders "no retreat" and scorcjed earth policy. German intel has estimated the Soviet Army War 2.5-3 million troops. Soviets will suffer 4 million casualties in 1941.
  • Distances are long and prisoners are burdensome. By October Kiev has fallen and Leningrad encircled (four years) and Moscow lays open before Nazi advance. October brings rains and mud. Ironically they cannor resume their advance until the freeze hits. By early December he is 9 miles from Moscow.
  • Pearl Harbor allows the Soviets to remove their Siberian Army to stop the Germans. The Cold sets in.
  • German advance has stopped cold until Springtime.
• After the German invasion of the USSR, Churchill and FDR will meet off the coast of Newfoundland The Agreements are called the Atlantic Charter (but the US is not at war) and numerate war aims.
  • No territorial gains were to be sought
  • Territorial change should be made in consultations with affected peoples
  • People have right of self-determinism
  • Trade barriers should be lowered (Free Trade)
  • Global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare
  • A world free form fear and want
  • Freedom of the seas
  • Disarmament of Aggression Nations and a common post war disarmament
  • This leads to the declaration of the United Nations.